One of the first Hindi/Bollywood style films I have seen (after Slumdog Millionaire) and I really didn't know what to expect. It was kinda long and the dancing and singing wasn't really my cup of tea, but it had some laughs, some drama and an interesting story. 7/10.

Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro.

A Miyazaki oldie from the pre-Ghibli era, but you can defenitely see where the high standard of his Ghibli movies is coming from. Not his best of course, but fun to watch. 7/10.

I don't like Kafka because the lack of character building. While watching this film I learned that I also don't like Kafka-like stories with characterbuilding. I get while people find it intriguing or good, but I was glad when the end titles started rolling.

Goddamn, where has this film been all my life. Loved it. Hit the spot in so many ways. Can't believe it's taken me so long to see it.

On my unranked 550 -- it is so bad in such a great way. Some priceless moments. One of the only R-rated Beta tapes my dad owned (given to him by a friend).

I've heard it's pretty bad-in-a-WTF-way, but ever since VincentPrice did Straight to Hell for the Guess the Allusion game months ago, I've been wanting to see that, too. I don't care if it sucks or not.

Die Parallelstrasse / The Parallel Street (1962, Ferdinand Khittl)The number 188 appears, then the screen goes completely black. We hear noises and words spoken in many tongues. Then as suddenly as it all began we find ourselves in a poorly lit room, photographed in black and white, where a clerk stationed at his desk tells five men, seemingly researching documents that this is the end of the first session. Soon, after the credits are done rolling, we're told that this is the end of "Part 2".

The clerk is our only direct link into an logical comprehension of what is appearing before our eyes. In the early minutes of the film he confesses to us his sorrow over how the five men cannot comprehend the documents are mirrors of their own existence. He comments on their futile efforts to make sense of what's before them. How they have made a meaningless chart and made rules that comes to nothing. He notes that they will fail, like all before them, and that at the end of the last 90 minute session their lives will end.

And after this introduction "part 3" may commence as the five men goes through document 189, 190, and so on in the hope of reaching the last document 310 before their time is up. The documents themselves are segments filmed in color covering parts of the world, the human mindset, human constructions, etc. usually with an attached set of information the clerk reads out. We are now to follow the men try to make sense of what's put before them and the discussions they have between them. Their tone is calm, and relatively collected.

Whether or not the exercise is an allegory of life and the human existence can be debated, I felt this was the most comprehensible solution, but this is about so much more than simple answers. I cannot underline many enough times what a unique experience this is. It harbors an obscure sense of poetic beauty, that much like the documents explored are slightly out of our comprehension. Be it an astute beauty of life, a melancholy feeling of being lost or simply the joy of watching and partaking in such an astonishing artistic creation/experience, this movie manages to cover so much emotion, and perhaps even information, without ever really revealing its core or giving us something we can easily grasp and categorize.

The fact that it consciously incorporates into our minds that this is the last part of a larger picture was also something I could not easily shake, and it stayed on my mind throughout. First I thought it was a negative, a form of unnecessary confusion, but now, in retrospect, I view it differently. It not only creates a craving for more, but it creates a sense of claustrophobia, and in a lesser sense bewilderment. With the exception of one re-evaluated document you see none of the 187 first documents, and the exercise itself is a mystery, we know nothing about the surrounding situation and reasoning behind what we see. I found this to create an incredibly strong experience for me. The Parallel Street is a film I will never forget.

I fidanzati / The Fiances is a beautifully shot, contemplative and understated film about love and life. One of the first things that struck me was how it with such ease played around with past and present, through brrief flasbacks playing on emotion more than anything else. It's a very interesting narrative as we slowly follow our lead character leave his home town and fiance for the oppurtunity of getting better position. This really didn't feel like an Italian film for me as it's such a close relative of the French New Wave. It's elegant use of flashbacks it's not it's only experimentation with form, it also features a lot of very interesting editing. The editing of the flashbacks is quite impressive, but the way it creates atmosphere by switching between slower more atmospheric scenes suddenly being abrupted by him closing the door as his guest leave or finding himself in a different place entirely. It was all highly impressive. It's also soft, quite gentle and towards the end it essentially explodes in love as the two lovers reads their letters to flashes of their past relationship and current situation. But despite all this it felt rather stilted, and with the exception of a few scenes very little grabbed me emotionally. So I essentially spent my time marvelling at the technical aspects and the creativity, yet never really getting in to the films emotional core. This is however a film I can see many people falling head-over-heels in love with, so I wanted to take my time and give it a proper write up. It should be pointed out that this was Ermanno Olmi first feaure movie after his most known endeavor(save The Tree of Wooden Clogs), Il Posto, which I liked a great bit more, but if you were a fan of that this is most likely a film for you.

I Love You Alice B. Toklas. Thought this was a check. Or at least I thought it had something to do with Gertrude Stein, beside the song. It was totally groovy though man. Makes me want to paint my car. 6.5/10

Tôkyô no kôrasu / Tokyo Chorus (1931, Yasujirô Ozu)An odd not too essential piece of Ozu's fimography. We open up at the high school/college schoolyard where we just follow the gym class, the print I had was accompanied by one of the most cliched "comedic" silent scores you'd never expect to see in a Japanese movie, can't really find any info on wether or not it was eddited like this on it's initial release. First I wondered if it might have been the American release, but as the intertitles were in Japanese I doubt it. Anyways it was basically just the usual rythm which was implying what went on was funny, while it wasn't particularly so, hence the need for quirky music.

We jump several years forward in time and find one of the students as a father working ia an insurance company. We get a few more thought out jokes, justifying the score, but then the man stands up to his boss, and as we pretty much knew when he went into the office he gets fired. The music gets more toned down, and for the last half of the film it completely disappears, as does the comedy. We now focus on the family and the man's search for a new job. It's charming enough, and pretty lighthearted. He soon runs into his old teacher, explaining the need for the prolouge described above. Yeah, I'm giving out a lot of plot-points, but this really isn't that sort of film you can spoil. It's a well made drama comedy that manages to make you care about the characters well enough, but isn't really giving us anything special, and I'll forget about it soon.

It should also be pointed out that this film was made before Ozu really grew into his style. The visuals/aesthetics are often pretty bland, particularly during the opening sequence. It's a cute little story. Good enough, nothing more. 6/10.

Watched White Hunter Black Heart earlier as part of my Clint Eastwood goal. I really enjoyed it. Eastwood has done a few films that are largely forgotten but are surprisingly good. Honky Tonk Man is another really good one, but I reckon Breezy, The Gauntlet, Bronco Billy, Pale Rider, Heartbreak Ridge and Bird are all also pretty good. Add those to his other more well known early films like Play Misty For Me, High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales and it's ain't too shabby a filmography. This is all before Unforgiven and his more recent hits too.

I chose Eastwood almost randomly for this goal but so far I'm really glad I did.

Watched White Hunter Black Heart earlier as part of my Clint Eastwood goal. I really enjoyed it. Eastwood has done a few films that are largely forgotten but are surprisingly good. Honky Tonk Man is another really good one, but I reckon Breezy, The Gauntlet, Bronco Billy, Pale Rider, Heartbreak Ridge and Bird are all also pretty good. Add those to his other more well known early films like Play Misty For Me, High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales and it's ain't too shabby a filmography. This is all before Unforgiven and his more recent hits too.

I chose Eastwood almost randomly for this goal but so far I'm really glad I did.

Honkytonk Man is one of my favourite Eastwood films. Pity it doesn't get more attention.

White Hunter and Bird of two of the handful of films I've still got to see.

The Hunger Games (2012, Gary Ross)Just watched my first 2012 film. It was the pre-release of The Hunger Games. Being surrounded my tween girls in costumes was probably one of the most awkward experiences of my life, and please don't ask me why I was there. At the beginning of the movie it almost seemed like a bad joke.

The costumes was so ridiculously caricated, obviously for comedic effect, but without any form of dedication. Was as if it was taken out of a Tim Burton/John Waters movie. Stanley Tucci's blue hair will forever be burnt into my mind, it was absolutely ridiculous. And he was actually one of the few who seemed in on the joke, the rest really wasn't pulled off too well.

So yeah, at the beginning it was quite awful. Pathetic acting all around, including Jennifer Lawrence, who has showed she can do a lot better. Heck, the set-up kinda reminded me of Winters Bone, making it all the more in your face what a gigantic step-down this is. But what can you expect from what's essentially Battle Royale for teenage girls.

As the action start I did get a bit more into it and it was just mediocre rather than horrid. Pathetically safe mind you, no moral ambigiousity, which I can't even fathom they managed to avoid given the consept itself. Well, I guess they deserve some credit for making a film about teens killing each other "safe".

So yeah, nothing particularly big, with the exclusion of the 142 min run time. It did seem to have a great effect on the fans though. Several people started crying when a person was killed and they were cheering and clapping throughout. Was a bit like being in the Twilight Zone.

And honestly Woody Harrelson must have been on drugs, in fact everyone involved must have been on drugs.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011, Sean Durkin) A truly disturbing tale of a young women breaking with her cult and struggling with her memories/retrurn to her family. It's elegantly told through flashbacks and dreams. Elizabeth Olsen proves to be a very talented actress, and John Hawkes is great as always, though surprisingly not as used as expected, and surprisingly a lot of the terror I felt throughout the film did not come from him. Some of the material might have been slight tad too simple, but it did manage to go quite far into her psychology. It's also rather ambigious, and the ending/the entire film is going to stay on my mind for a long time. Definitely one of last years best, and it earns an entry into my top 500. 9/10.

How do you take the ending then? I just found it a total cop-out - less ambiguous and more just a frustrating cliffhanger. Tune in next week and find out if the car really contains one of the cult members. I get that we've experienced the film from her POV and it's trying to simulate her doubt/paranoia by leaving us in the dark, but just found it a bit of cheap tactic to end on that note. It's as if the film itself was too scared to commit to any answer.

How do you take the ending then? I just found it a total cop-out - less ambiguous and more just a frustrating cliffhanger. Tune in next week and find out if the car really contains one of the cult members. I get that we've experienced the film from her POV and it's trying to simulate her doubt/paranoia by leaving us in the dark, but just found it a bit of cheap tactic to end on that note. It's as if the film itself was too scared to commit to any answer.

I can definitely see where you are coming from. Though I didn't think it was a cop-out I did think that it could have been handled differently, however:

Spoiler: click to toggle

As the car closes in on them we're all struck with fright. We don't know if it's them, she doesn't know if it's them, and we get to take part of her paranoia and feel exactly what she's feeling. As for me, I don't think it was them at all and that it's rather showing us how she will look over her shoulder for the rest of her life. It's handled a bit forcefully, I'll give you that, and they could have chosen whichdirection to go in, but the way they left it was quite effective and genuinly freightning.

I had never even heard of Hiroshi Shimizu before a few days ago, but somehow I stumbled upon these quotes:

Yasujiro Ozu: "I can't shoot films like Shimizu."Kenji Mizoguchi: "People like me and Ozu get films made by hard work, but Shimizu is a genius..."

I immidiately got the four film released bt Criterion's Eclipse collection and had myself a:

Hiroshi Shimizu mini-marathon

Minato no nihon musume / Japanese Girls at the Harbor (1933, Hiroshi Shimizu)A rather couragous film, but in regard of it's controversial thematics, and in it's approach to filmmaking. It contains a certain joy of cinema, which is sadly running a bit wild. There's just too much editing going on. Most of the jumps, which are pretty rapid, appear clunky, and there's just way too many shots were someone fades away, to imply a time jump. This also causes it to feel rather rushed. A rather unique viewing for sure, and it had a lot of interesting material. The story itself is rather simple, which partly works to it's advantage, it has some of the understated emotional level that gives it a lot of power. This seems to be a common denominator for Shimitsu films. But the story could also be a tad contrived, and the simplicity also subtracted a bit in this particular case, just felt a tad thin in the end. Definitely a good film though. 6/10.

Arigatô-san / Mr. Thank You (1936, Hiroshi Shimizu) The first thing I noticed was that it still suffered from some of the clunky editing that haunted Japanese Girls at the Harbor, but soon that didn't matter at all. This film manages to capture a certain melancholy joy, an odd creature of calm, understated, socially criticising comedy. It's certainly nowhere near a laugh riot, far from it, but it made me smile from ear to ear on more than one occasion, and this despite the rather tragic undercurrents.

Our title character is a charming bus driver who always thanks the people who let him pass, but this story isn't about him in particular. Almost the entire film is set within the bus, where we spend time with the passengers as they approach their destination. Peope get off and people get on, they indulge in conversation and try to hide their own fates. Our main focus is on a mother taking her 17 year old daughter to Tokyo so she can find work, and it's being alluded to that she will be sold into prostitution, but the other passengers also have their stories. Conversations are exchanged, moral dogmas are explored. This truly is a beautiful creature, and though some of the technical aspects could be better Shimizu has a far better grip on it this time around. 8/10.

Anma to onna / The Masseurs and a Woman (1938, Hiroshi Shimizu) Charming and humane tale of a spa, with a particular focus the blind masseurs and the guests, particularly a young woman from Tokyo who may or may not be a thief. The maseurs have more than enough personality, and carry the film wonderfully. You really get to care for these people. The style is calm and observing and depicts an existence of both personal wonders, however small they might seem, and the hardships of life. It's simplicity and dwelling beauty makes it all the more memorable, and the character interactions, does, for the most part anyways, as if taken out of real life. 7/10.

Kanzashi / Ornamental hairpin (1941, Hiroshi Shimizu)An intriguing film that rather gets lost somewhere in the making. Shimizu returns to the spa/inn setting, but this time the anmas are merely extras, and we are to follow a rather large group of connected guests as well. A character only referred to as the professor drives most of the early plot. He’s a grumpy old sourpuss who everybody seems to agree with, mostly out of fright it would appear, and quite a lot of humor stems from this, but when one of his acquaintances steps on a hairpin the storyline is soon to change.

So, a bit before the midway point the owner of the hairpin, which seems to have temporarily crippled man, returns to apologize. By this point the comedy is gone, and we are to follow this would be semi-romance. By this point it all just felt really thin, and I didn’t really see a point to it all. It gets some bonus points for a rather unexpected ending, but this is a movie which never really knew what it wanted to be. It’s still more or less good, though most of the best bits are in the first half. 6/10.

watching Inglorious Bastards atm but the last movie I finished was Sleeper

Was interesting little quirky sci-fi'ish movie from Woody Allen early days. I haven't watched a lot of Woody Allen but it this one for me is right behind Annie Hall/Manhattan. I was thinking to myself man this is kinda different from what I have seen from Woody Allen then I thought to myself, but no. The Woody Allen/Diane Keaton romance angle was very similar to other works of his. But hey I really enjoyed its oddness. For the record, the Woody Allen films I have seen are. Annie Hall, Manhattan, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Midnight in Paris. Yeah I know I got some work to do

I'm continuing my Fantastic Voyage through the '70s...I have three different films, so I'm spoiler-tagging the paragraphs, to avoid a crazy-long post.

The Big Bird Cage -- Hill, 1972

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More exploitation! This was a follow-up to Hill's The Big Doll House – not a sequel, but there's a similar Women in Prison + Escape Attempt, it's also shot in the Philippines, and it stars some of the same actors, like Pam Grier and Sid Haig. Anitra Ford plays a piece of eye candy who gets in deep with local politicians; when she learns too much, she's framed for a crime and sent to a women's prison camp. Grier and Haig are guerrillas / lovers, but Grier is the only female in the revolutionaries' hideout, and all those male freedom-fighters get...lonely. The solution? Get Grier arrested and sent to the prison camp so she can execute a jailbreak and take all those sex-starved, nubile prisoners back to the guerrilla camp – because of course every newly-liberated female would be thrilled to get it on with some random members of the resistance. (Just go with it – it works in Jack Hill films.)

I liked that Grier and Haig had more screen time than they did in The Big Doll House, but the film is oddly structured; it follows Anitra Ford heavily for a long time and then she's suddenly left hanging (literally!) and the plot forgets about her for what seems like a really long time. I was happy for any excuse to have more Haig and Grier – just surprised that Ford disappeared for so long. My favorite line is uttered by Sid Haig in a truck, and it's so crude and politically incorrect that I don't think I should type or discuss it – it sounds awful by itself, but it actually mocks the conventions of the genre (particularly in the way he says it, and the fact tht he doesn't follow through on what he says) – it's similar to the way the characters of Scream bring up horror conventions. I think I still like The Big Doll House and Switchblade Sisters a bit more, but this one was definitely fun (assuming you find exploitation – or films that mock exploitation -- fun).

La salamandre a.k.a. The Salamander -- Tanner, 1971

Spoiler: click to toggle

My first Alain Tanner. Pierre (Jean-Luc Bideau) is a journalist who is paid to write something on Rosemonde (Bulle Ogier), a young woman who may or may not have shot and wounded her uncle: she says he was cleaning his rifle and it misfired, while the uncle claims that Rosemonde shot him. Pierre hires his fiction- / poetry-oriented friend Paul (Jacques Denis) to help write the Rosemonde piece, since Pierre is already busy with some other work.

Paul decides that he doesn't need to meet or study Rosemonde to know how the whole story will go – there's a "Paul" narration that runs through much of the film, as he creates this partially-dead-on, partially-fictional account of what Rosemonde is really like, her backstory, and what happened with her uncle. Pierre isn't comfortable with Paul's dreaming up the whole thing without getting any facts; he insists on interviewing the people who know Rosemonde, as well as Rosemonde herself. With Pierre's investigations, the viewer may not learn anything more truthful than Paul's version of events, since he gets conflicting stories between Rosemonde and her uncle.

Rosemonde's a wild girl, due to life events and her own (inherent?) personality; she's the "salamander" in the film's title: a fiery nature, a creature that's born and constantly renewed in fire. Tanner allows her her own self-narrative, in a way -- the viewer gets to observe her in scenes without Pierre or Paul -- and there's an omniscient voiceover narrator who occasionally fills us in on the characters' backstories or unexpressed thoughts. Ogier does a great job in the part, evoking a sense of accessibility to Rosemonde, but at the same time dodging clear interpretation.

The film is ultimately about whether anyone can "know" anyone, or the truth of past events, but Tanner does it in a subtle way, without constantly banging the viewer over the head. Fascinating, thoughtful work.

This one just left me wanting to see even more '70s Fukasaku. It's a yakuza film, particularly in terms of the most basic parts of its plot, but aside from the customary yakuza fights and entourage / gang relationships, a lot of the characters and ambience resembled a film noir (in color): it's got the stoic antihero, the play of bright light and deep shadow, the Very Bad Girl (whom the stoic antihero loved in more innocent times, of course), and the jazz-based musical theme that gets played repeatedly on trumpet, saxophone, harmonica...

This film also differs from the few yakuza films I've seen in the way the hero and his gang are portrayed: even though he's certainly a criminal, he's no "bad example" or thug -- he's an elegant, smart leader with a sense of honor that many other gang leaders lack, and his small crew is extremely likeable. They may be criminals, but you really want them to win and achieve their goals, which involve taking down a corrupt corporation -- the "underdog" nature of the few individuals against the Giant Evil Company make them seem even more heroic and appealing. They don't seem predestined for punishment or failure.

Lots of guns fired, lots of (very fake-looking) blood, lots of standoffs and showdowns...it was really fun and (near the end) suspenseful. I suspect it improves even more on repeat viewing.

My first Mekas. Mekas was born in Lithuania, but he and his brother came to the US as Displaced Persons ("DPs") after WWII. The initial part of the documentary talks about their early time in Brooklyn, and what it was like living in America in the '50s. How they came to be DPs -- the story of that journey -- is gradually unfolded during their first visit to Lithuania in 25 years (which comprises the second part -- most of the film, really).

The days Mekas spends with his family and old friends in Lithuania are wonderful to watch -- they're expressed in very fleeting, often shaky, impressionistic camerawork, rapidly cutting between moments and images, recreating the way little bits of memories often flit through one's head. The initial moments require a little acclimatization, but the viewer can get used to it pretty quickly. Much of the footage recalls an older style of life -- houses without indoor plumbing, collective farmers calculating their harvest on an abacus, the women doing much of the cooking outdoors. It's touching to see him reunite with old friends and relatives (including his elderly mother), to simultaneously remember old times and wonder what his life might have been like if WWII hadn't intervened.

A trip to Vienna and a Hamburg suburb (former location of a German prison camp) are the third and final portion of the documentary. I don't want to give too much away, but it's definitely affecting, and the end implies that modernity is rapidly encroaching on these beautiful (albeit hard), old ways of life. The past is continually eroding or destroying itself in a blaze; Mekas's documentary serves as a way to remember.

Not sure if I'd call Cruise's performance great, but he's a perfect fit for the role and while Newman is great. It's not particularly original and uses a lot of "old generation clearing the way for the new" tropes, but it gets the job done and has a lot of great little moments. It was just the kind of film I needed right now, so that helps too.

This film has been on my list for a long time, so I'm very glad to have seen it at last. I have only seen a handful of films with Jean-Pierre Léaud (and only The 400 Blows among the Antoine Doinel series), but this is easily my favorite adult role for him. He plays Alexandre, a young man with no job, no money, no calling, supported by Marie (Bernadette Lafont), an older woman (mid 30s? -- the "mother" in the piece -- at one point she even dresses him). In the spirit of sexual revolution, they supposedly have an open relationship, theoretically free of all that bitterness and jealousy that monogamous couples suffer.

We know that these ideals of "free love" aren't holding up well very early in the film, when Alexandre makes a nuisance of himself trying to persuade an old girlfriend (engaged to another man) to get back together with him. He's childish and jealous. He chooses his new girlfriend, the sexually open nurse Veronika (the brilliant Françoise Lebrun, the "Whore" of the piece) largely because she looks like the engaged girlfriend who spurned him. Much of the film focuses on Alexandre, Marie and Veronika's attempts to navigate these complicated, "free" relationships.

Actually, most of the time is spent with Alexandre talking and talking and talking, while the women listen...and listen and listen. Eustache often zeroes in on them listening. Occasionally they get their own monologues, but for the most part, clueless, self-centered Alexandre spouts his philosophies and thoughts while the women listen. On some of the rare occasions the women talk for more than a few lines (particularly some later monologues of Veronika's), it becomes clear that in many ways, they're a great deal wiser and understand the mess they've been in better than Alexandre ever has -- they tolerate him out of love, or perhaps out of longing for what they wish they could have. The ending is certainly no fairy tale.

Eustache plays records or the radio at certain points in the film, and the musical choices he makes are often very telling -- the lyrics or choice of piece is a second commentary on the scene. When Alexandre and Veronika are sitting around at one point, Alexandre plays "La chanson des fortifs" (you can look up the lyrics) -- the song was created at a different time and place, but the lyrics work just as well for the aftermath of '68, talking about how all the heroes have gone. Veronika seems like she might get the irony, but Alexandre is so busy trying to sing along and be silly that all he hears is a funny song. I won't cover all the scenes, but I remember thinking in several "Perfect musical choice!"

Turks fruit a.k.a. Turkish Delight -- Verhoeven, 1973

Spoiler: click to toggle

While I was watching Turks fruit, I could not stop thinking about Love Story (a film I've repeatedly stated is possibly my most hated film of all time). The films bear an uncanny resemblance to one another, in terms of plot and characterization: a free-spirited lover with ties to the arts falls for a slightly more conventional person (at least initally from a more conventional background), and they do crazy things together as they struggle financially. There is opposition to their marriage, plus a dad who's pretty cool with the idea. There are some other big resemblances later in the plot, as well.

What differs greatly between the two films is the way everything is treated. Rutger Hauer isn't just a free spirit; he's...well, Rutger Hauer. Monique van de Ven comes from respectable roots, but when the two of them find each other, there's no messing around -- they dive right into a real, rebellious relationship. Every time Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw do something daring or swear, it's like they're simultaneously broadcasting, "Look! Look! I'm a Hollywood star and I just said 'bullshit' in a movie!" Hauer and van de Ven's relationship is about as far from that self-conscious, self-congratulatory fantasy as a stripper is from the convent. Their characters aren't acting rebellious and crazy; they simply are rebellious and crazy. (In terms of the spirit, they're closer to Sid and Nancy than Oliver and Jenny.)

There are the obligatory romantic shots, but these are tempered by plenty of sex (this is Verhoeven!) and daily grind. Certain things in Love Story get more and more beautiful, and Ryan O'Neal seems to have learned something by the end. In Turks fruit, the end is not sugar-coated, pretty, or redemptive. The whole film is brutal, but honest -- sometimes funny, sometimes unsettling, sometimes...well, kind of gross...but honest. Similar plot, but everything Love Story is not.

The Driver -- W. Hill, 1978

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Speaking of Ryan O'Neal, whose acting I despise...this film is brilliant. I've already outlined why I hate Ryan O'Neal (see my Wild Rovers review in the '70s challenge thread, or probably several other threads, including hints of it in the review of Turks fruit, above). Walter Hill must have told Ryan O'Neal to move his forehead and eyebrows as little as possible, and just to look tense, and then he wrote a script where Ryan O'Neal says very, very, VERY little. So...Ryan O'Neal doesn't get to talk, or EMOTE LIKE RYAN O'NEAL, or anything -- he just walks around looking cool and stern -- and it totally works. I have seen so many films where Ryan O'Neal acts like Ryan O'Neal that I have to give credit to Walter Hill.

Inspired by Le samouraï, O'Neal plays an ace getaway driver who becomes the target of a vengeful detective (Bruce Dern, who my husband says gnashed his teeth a lot, though I didn't see so much of this). The detective is so eager to catch the driver that he even has some crooks set up a job to trap O'Neal. Isabelle Adjani is pretty as usual and okay, but she doesn't really wow here as the girl caught up in the case. (I've seen her in much better form.)

The car work is wonderful! An opening chase is great, and there's a parking garage scene that's really funny; Hill and his editors definitely knew how to create chase scenes. I like the sleekness of the picture, but I really love that Walter Hill made Ryan O'Neal watchable -- unlike Barry Lyndon and Paper Moon, I don't have to say I loved this film despite O'Neal. The trick is keeping him stone-faced and letting him say very little.

(My husband and I also have a fun drinking game involving cars in movies that crash into stacks of empty cardboard boxes, empty crates, containers full of things like chicken feathers or molasses, or fruit/vegetable market stalls on the street (plus obligatory fruit vendor diving out of the way). This film only had a couple of those types of crashes...whew.)

Swedish rape-and-revenge exploitation with hardcore porn footage, pretty fun revenge training, and too many slow-motion shots. More written in the Nordic challenge thread, just as soon as I get over there and write it!